Solid Form Of Language
by Robert Bringhurst
A short but fascinating book about the development and variety of scripts — of methods of writing. Thoughtful, unique, and printed with style and elegance.
Drop a word in the ocean of meaning, and concentric ripples form. To define a single word means to try to catch those ripples. No one’s hands are fast enough. Now drop two or three words in at once. Interference patterns form, reinforcing one another here and canceling each other there. To catch the meaning of the words is not to catch the ripples that they cause; it is to catch the interaction of those ripples. This is what it means to listen; this is what it means to read